A practical method for simultaneously determining the effective burst sizes and cycle times of viruses

We describe combined analytic and experimental methods for determining repr oductive statistics from time-series data. Our computational methods derive four fundamental measures from laboratory experiments: (i) average number of viral daughters; (ii) mean viral cycle time; (iii) standard deviation of the viral cycling time; and (iv) viral doubling time. Taken together, thes e four reproductive statistics characterize "age-specific fertility," a qua ntity that provides complete information on the reproduction of the average viral particle. In this paper, we emphasize applications relating to HIV a nd experiments for assessing cellular tropism, viral phenotypes, antiviral drugs, humoral immunity, and cytotoxic cellular immunity, Nevertheless, our method is quite flexible and applicable to the evaluation of drugs against bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections, antineoplastic agents against cancer cells, and perturbations involving pest and wildlife releases in ec osystems.